Sunday, May 13, 2012

Open pit mines seen from space

Wired magazine posted a collection of satellite views of open pit mines from around the world that are visually striking. Only one, the New Cornellia mine from Ajo, is from Arizona.

Wired described the NASA photo at right, as "Copper was first mined from this area just south of the mining town of
Ajo, Arizona, around 1750. The open-pit mine pictured above began being
excavated in earnest in 1912. It was shut down in 1983 when the price of
copper dropped. The scalloped land just to the right of the mine is
covered in tailings, and the large gray rectangles above that are
containment ponds where the metal was extracted."